It was a little known fact that Connie Beauchamp was sad. Not just a little sad, but the kind of sadness that would be professionally classified as depression, not that she acknowledged that. Connie even slept in the on call room in a bid to avoid her now empty house, since Grace had moved to America. But poor old Connie went about her daily life without telling anyone, especially not her colleagues. Until, that is, she was forced to spend five hours with the person she least expected.
Connie stepped into the hospital lift quickly, she had a meeting with Guy Self and she was already half an hour late.
The doors to the lift were just closing as Cal stepped in "Sorry Co- Mrs Beauchamp, I'm just taking this file upstairs" he said, holding up the brown file defensively.
Connie just raised her eyebrows in response, not wanting to get trapped in another monotonous conversation and the lift started moving smoothly upwards. Suddenly there was a loud noise above and the lift stopped with a jolt. "Oh for goodness sake not now" Connie muttered, stabbing various buttons on the panel with a perfectly manicured finger, in an attempt to get the lift moving again. When nothing worked however, she turned to Cal and was about to ask him for help when her phone started ringing in her hand; Zoe. "Yes?" She snapped, wanting to get to her meeting as soon as possible "Connie, are you in the lift?"
"Yes, so is Dr Knight, why do you ask?"
"We heard it break down and Robyn said she saw you go in there, they think it'll take around five hours to get you out"
"Five hours, Zoe that's ridiculous -"
"Look Connie I've got to go, sorry"
With a sigh Connie turned around and explained the situation Cal, but she forgot to mention one small detail; she was extremely claustrophobic.
Half an hour. That's all Connie could manage before she started to panic. The two doctors were sat on the lift floor, their backs leaning against the wall, in complete and utter silence. Connie was trying to regulate her breathing in an attempt to show no sign of weakness through her icy exterior. "Connie?" Asked Cal "Connie are you okay?"
"Uh... Fine... Just a little... Claustrophobic"
Cal grabbed her hand noticing how is was already a little clammy, she made an obvious attempt to pull away but Cal was persistent "Connie, I need you to calm down okay, you're having a panic attack"
Connie tried but it didn't seem to be working, "Crap" Cal muttered, picking up Connie's phone and ringing Zoe, who answered instantly.
"Connie? Is everyth-"
"Zoe its Cal, Connie's having a panic attack, she's claustrophobic" He turned away from Connie slightly and whispered so to not panic her further "I think she's about the pass out"
"Oh god, right um okay, if she passes out put her head in your lap and keep an eye on her breathing, the engineers are working as fast as they can"
"Okay, thanks Zoe" Cal put the phone down and turned back to Connie. "They're working as quickly as possible"
Connie managed a weak nod in response before falling into Cals arms, unconscious.